Italian opposition leaders have called on Giorgia Meloni to ban neo-fascist groups after a video surfaced online showing hundreds of men giving fascist salutes at an event in Rome, the Guardian reports.
The crowd gathered outside the former headquarters of the Italian Social Movement (MSI), founded after World War II, which eventually evolved into Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party.
The annual gathering, held on Sunday on Acca Larentia Street in the city’s east, marks the 46th anniversary of the killing of three militants from the youth wing of the now-defunct party.
The video, which has been widely circulated online, shows the men standing in a row, saluting and shouting “present” three times. Then one of the militants shouts “For all fallen comrades!” – a typical neo-fascist rallying cry. Elly Schlein, leader of the centre-left Democratic party, wrote on social media:
“Rome, 7 January 2024. It seems like 1924. What happened is unacceptable. Neofascist groups must be disbanded, as the constitution spells out.”
Carlo Calenda, leader of the centrist Azione party, noted:
“This is an unacceptable disgrace in a European democracy.”
The Five Star Movement said it planned to file a complaint with the court for “apologising for fascism”.
Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime seized power after the “March on Rome” in October 1922, and in April 1924 won a resounding victory in general elections and destroyed Italy’s multiparty system. Mussolini’s reorganisation of the fascist party was banned by Italy’s post-war constitution, which also outlawed the display of fascist ideology and propaganda.
However, new groups such as the MSI, founded by Giorgio Almirante, a minister in Mussolini’s government, were able to circumvent the ban by using a different name and claiming to be a new political force. Meloni, who came to power in October 2022, founded the MSI’s political descendant, the Brothers of Italy.
During her election campaign, Meloni tried to distance her party from its neo-fascist origins. She claimed to have consigned “fascism to history” decades ago.
On Monday, Fabio Rampelli, a Brothers of Italy politician and vice chairman of the lower house of parliament, said the party was “lightyears away” from neo-fascist manifestations. He said that while the Brothers of Italy had not abandoned “the memory of the three boys barbarically murdered 46 years ago,” they “do not take part in these kinds of demonstrations.” “It’s not our style, it’s not our philosophy,” Rampelli added.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who heads Meloni’s coalition ally Forza Italia, said any celebration of the dictatorship should be condemned. The annual celebration of the Acca Larentia killings is authorised by local and regional authorities.
Two of the MSI youth wing members were allegedly killed on 7 January 1978 by suspected left-wing militants. Another was fatally shot the same day by a policeman after riots broke out. All were teenagers. No one has been convicted for their murders. Paolo Berizzi, a journalist with La Repubblica who has written extensively about the extreme right in Italy, said:
“The astonishing thing is that this openly apologetic demonstration of fascism is allowed in Italy, whereas in Germany and in other countries everyone would have been arrested.”
Meloni presents her party as a conservative defender of patriotism. She declares that there are no “nostalgic fascists, racists or anti-Semites” in the Brothers of Italy’s DNA.
